


Bonfire

by Gabriel4Sam



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fix-It, Getting Together, M/M, Order 66 ? Don't know him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:54:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23701141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabriel4Sam/pseuds/Gabriel4Sam
Summary: Watching Palpatine burn finally pushes some words out of Rex's throat. Words he wanted to say to Obi-Wan for a long time.
Relationships: CT-6116 | Kix/Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 19
Kudos: 315
Collections: Clones Adore Obiwan, Mace Windu Fandom Safe Space, Mace Windu Rare Pairs





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TexasDreamer01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TexasDreamer01/gifts).



In the last moments, it’s Obi-Wan and Rex against Palpatine.

They started with more numbers –hunting the most terrifying Sith Lord in centuries is not a two men mission – but had to leave them, little by little. Kix stayed with Mace Windu, who had been hurt inflicting the first wound on Sidious, Shaak Ti stayed with Eeth, her hands the only thing stopping him from bleeding to death, Anakin was rescued by Cody, Fox had to breah for Quinlan for a few minutes before the Jedi’s lungs started working on themselves and it went and went, and at the end, it was only Rex and Obi-Wan.

Palpatine die crying and pleading, and neither men could find in themselves to care.

After, when all is said and done and the only thing left is a grossly distorted body, Obi-Wan hacks a few trees with his lightsaber and built a pyre, floating them in a vaguely square shape.

Not that he wants respects payed to Sidious but better safe than sorry and fire purifies. He wants to be very, very, very, very sure Sidious won’t come back.

“I hope Fives and Tup can see it,” Rex grumbles under his breath when they light the pyre and those are the only words said at the funeral of Palpatine. And the mortal envelop of the once Chancellor burns, on a faraway world, in a lost primal forest, with only a clone and a Jedi, those who would have been the first victims of the Empire, watching.

Together they sit side by side on a fallen tree and watch the last Sith Lord burn. It isn’t as satisfying as Rex believed it would be: he’s too exhausted and also there is mud everywhere in his blacks despite the armour. He’s hitching, tired, he wants a drink, no, he wants _three_ drinks, and to see his brothers and be sure he didn’t lost anyone else, and then to sleep for a few days.

He turns to Obi-Wan, admiring for a moment his profile in the light crackling from the pyre. The Jedi has lost a few pounds in the last weeks of the hunt, pounds he couldn’t afford to lose, the bags under his eyes are so dark he seems like he has been punched and his bead and hair are unkempt.

Rex had never wanted him more and with the adrenaline crashing in his blood, he speaks for the first time.

He says the words which have been on his lips for years, the words he swallowed back again and again, since one day, he turned and saw the sun of a world whose name he doesn’t remember, crowning Obi-Wan and for the first time, he didn’t think General, he didn’t think Jedi, he thought of the mouth he wanted to kiss, the hand he wanted to hold, the soul he wanted to intertwine with his.

“Run away with me,” he says and he doesn’t even stutter. Obi-Wan turns to him and Rex can see the surprise on his face, behind the specks of mud. No matters how many time something passed between their gazes, no matters how many late nights they passed together, searching any pretexts to not go to their bunks, no matters how many times a trembling hand patted a vambrace or a shoulder after a close dance with death, no one of them ever spoke a word. No one ever made an inappropriate gesture. Only glances and it was never, ever enough, but how could there ever been more, between a General and a Captain? Between a Jedi and a vode?

“We did our duty,” Rex continues quickly, like in fear of being interrupted, “but there will always be more tasks, more duties, more reasons to give away our lives. And to be separated. They are already speaking of missions establishing colonies worlds in the Unknown space for the vod. And you’ll be Temple bound, or send into one diplomatic mission after another…I just…I want more. Run away with me. Be with me.”

His fingers sling down from his belt and he dares take Obi-Wan’s hand in his. The Jedi’s eyes are as mysterious and impossible to understand as when he’s deep in the Force. He leans down a little, his forehead against Rex’ shoulder and the Captain thinks, this is it, this is the moment where he let me down gently, where he talks about duty, not even accepting to meet my gaze in fear of letting what he believe to be primeval instincts, unfit for a Jedi.

And then he hears the _Yes_ against his ear.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s a mad run in the jungle.

Rex and Obi-Wan know they only have this chance of real happiness together. Soon, the reinforcements, which were only a few days behind in their hunt of Palpatine, will reach them, and they will once again be encased in their previous life, serving the Republic.

No, they only have this once chance: to steal the ship which they arrived on this planet, and to do it before the other Jedi and clones on this mission reach it as a rallying point to wait for the Republic force.

It isn’t that they won’t feel guilty about it, but the most their friends and brethren have to fear is to wait camping instead of inside the ship.

Rex and Obi-Wan have to fear an entire life without each other. They have done their duty, now, they just want this tiny chance of happiness, a chance they will deny themselves if they don’t run, now, now, when they have the fortitude to do it.

When they arrive to the ship, it couldn’t be more awkwardly simultaneous if they tried.

Rex and Obi-Wan emerge from between the tree at the same moment than Mace Windu and Kix do, at the opposite of the clearing. Rex feel despair, harrowing and encompassing. There isn’t a Jedi alive Obi-Wan respects more than Master Windu.

Now, it’s sure, Obi-Wan won’t go with him.

There is a moment of silence, minus the usual noises of a jungle, as the four men observe each other.

Kix is the first to speak.

“You can’t stop us from going!” He snaps, and it’s the first time Rex has ever seen Kix, Kix always firm and calm in time of crisis, spit words like that. Kix has lost his helmet somewhere in the last hours and his eyes are wide, wild, ferocious.

“Going?” Obi-Wan asks, his hand still in Rex’s own. His hand is still is Rex’s own, their fingers intertwined. Obi-Wan hasn’t let go, in the face of Mace Windu himself. Rex has hope again. For a man like Obi-Wan, this is the equivalent of writing Rex’s name in fireworks in Coruscant’s sky.

Mace Windu clears his throat, then, with the arm not around Kix’s shoulders to stay upright, he searches, a little blindly, his dark eyes firm on Rex and Obi-Wan, and takes Kix’s hand.

“We’re going away,” he says, firm despite the enormity of what is passing in the moment, “We’re going away together, Kix and I, and I won’t let you stop us. Even you, Obi-Wan, old friend.”

The most awfully battled-challenged clanker, and all of them are battle challenged, their designers relying in numbers, not battle prowess, could defeat Rex without trouble in that moment, this is how shocked the good Captain is.

And Obi-Wan, mouth open like words finally fail him, him, the silver tongue negotiator, isn’t better.

************************

When the ship finally takes off, Anakin and Cody feels confident enough to leave their hidden place behind the bushes.

Gallantly, Cody helps Shaak Ti stands up too, even if she’s a Jedi Master, not a damsel in distress, and could totally do it herself. Quinlan limps to their suit, Fox’s shoulder propping him.

“I thought they would lose so much time flopping around in surprise that they would never leave before the reinforcement’s arrival!” Quinlan comments, a half smile on his lips. He’s oscillating between amusement and nostalgia. He will probably never see Obi-Wan again and knowing his friend will be happy, and in love, doesn’t stop a little sadness to invite itself in his heart.

“Yeah,” Anakin says, limping to a tree stump. He can’t wait for all that mass to be over “Obi-Wan is like that, ready to martyr himself in the name of duty, and I must say, I didn’t think it was even possible, but Master Windu is worst!”

Eeth Koth joins them, slowly, mindful of his wounds, and together, clones and Jedi, they look at each other, and at the direction the ship took.

“They died and our ship crashed?” Anakin offers.

“Terrible,” Shaak Ti answers, “The Republic will never forget them.”

“I definitely will find a bar to rename a cocktail in the name of poor Obi”, Quinlan starts, before pushing Anakin a little, because his leg is killing him and he needs to sit too.

Anakin looks up. The ship is no more than a tiny grain of dust in the sky.

He smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr, under the same username, come and say hi!


End file.
